


Is that the kinda way to face the burning heat?

by AmbroseRivers



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Angst, I don't even know what happened here, M/M, Phil is a Senshi, Supers, Venusian generals, kind of?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-18 22:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11883909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmbroseRivers/pseuds/AmbroseRivers
Summary: Remember to protect your dreams...Who knows what might happen? OR: Phil knows that Dan is a target.





	Is that the kinda way to face the burning heat?

**Author's Note:**

> This was a spur of the moment write and as I am about to embark on my fics for the RBB... I decided to upload it with minimal editing. I hope you enjoy this.  
> The title is taken from Work Song by Hozier.  
> The phrase "For the love of Serenity, burn." was coined by @seananmcguire on Tumblr and this piece was also inspired by @moonwhings piece: http://moonwhing.tumblr.com/post/164410367555  
> (Which is where the summary comes from)

He doesn’t remember that day very often but as the wind whips his hair across he cheeks as his brain registers his footfalls falling dully on the pavement beneath his feet and the ache in his jaw as he concentrated on breathing…

He can’t help but be swept away at the image of her kneeling beside him with a small, quivering smile as she offered him the bright red ball he had been chasing into the street without a thought. He had looked up into eyes that were blue like his but not saturated with the numerous hues blending into a watercolour mess that she teased him about. They were striking and Phil had told her as much then with wide, innocent eyes.

Minako had laughed at him airly, palms brushing his tiny shoulders as she leaned her forehead against his and he had shuffled his feet uneasily. His mum had told him not to talk to strangers…and if she caught sight of the girl with her now tight grip, he knew that she would be in trouble but still he didn’t pull away.

“You always have such stunning eyes as well.” She murmured and the ball in Phil’s grip whined as his fingers pressed deeper into the rubbery material.

“I’m sorry, miss but I—“ He was trying to be polite even as he shrugged her hands away, wedging the ball between them as a make shift shield and starting to slowly edge backwards. “I have to go.”

He couldn’t decipher her expression then but now he would be able to recognize the twist of her lips as she weighed her options, the second of hesitation in the shine of her irises before a large grin stretched across her lips.

“Of course! You will have someone worrying about you. Here—“ She reached into her pocket and produced a small orange pen that was topped with a star and crescent moon and Phil remembers the jolt that coursed through him, the undeniable desire to _have_ the pen.

He had dropped his toy and wrapped pudgy dirt-streaked fingers around the object.

Phil grasps that pen now and slams his thumb against the crescent moon. It is silent.

His heart skips faster before he hears:

“Pothos.” Venus’ voice sounds a bit husky and rough as she answers.

“I need back up.” Phil’s voice climbed a few octaves at the name she had bestowed him with.

He trips.

The sting slides up the palm that is not holding his communicator and Phil merely pushes himself up and continues his way through the _large too large_ park.

“Have you called Eros and—“

“We. Don’t. Have.” Phil words are punctuated with each heavy heave of his chest and distantly, he finds some trickle of humor in that he is running faster now than he ever did even when faced with the crack of a blazing chain, swords, and the various mechanisms their enemies had used over the years because of the possibility ( _no, he knows, he knows_) of Daniel being targeted. All he could see was laughing cinnamon eyes, chapped, bitten red lips, and flashing dimples. “Time!” He screamed the last word.

Phil considers the branches looming above him as they blur.

Would they be faster? Could he find him faster?

He had to go. **_NOW._**

He didn’t have time for Venus. He didn’t have time for the general of the Solar Senshi to assess how likely his predicament could affect the situation in Tokyo or what damage his actions could have on her generals stationed in London.

He didn’t have time for his _princess_ to deem whether Daniel was collateral damage.

Phil’s lungs burned as he practically flew towards his destination and his ankles throbbed with each step but he refused to slow down as he finally registered the cries of pain through the rushing blood in his ears. His forehead was scorching and he hissed as he swiped his hand across it with shaking fingers.

“For the love of Serenity.” The words were sharp, jagged and black spots danced in his vision as the crest on his brow grew even _hotter_ and Phil clawed at his skin, blunt nails trying to carve away the pain. There were tears flowing down his cheeks now and he ground his teeth to keep from crying out.

His knee howled in protest as he forced himself to skid to a stop, patella crushing the greenery beneath him and carving a shallow groove. He refused to kneel to the sigil but _fuck_ , the fire was agony.

He was so close to Dan and the screaming _had stopped. Oh **god.**_

“You need to calm dow—“

“I forsake the covenant of Serenity.” Phil grit out and Venus’ words died. He was trembling with the heat blazing across his nerves but he managed to stand on wobbly knees.

“You can’t.”

“My loyalty is to you, _Aphrodite_.” Phil growled as his fingers scraped against the bark of the tree and he forced himself to keep moving even if it was too slow. His right hand lowered from his forehead before coming to rest gently on the inked vine curving across his forearm and it glowed, shivering at his touch. “Serenity means nothing to me.”

Venus’ breathing was shallow and rapid- a rabbit’s trembling heart beat before Minako murmured,

“Don’t call me Aphrodite and I know but as your princess—“

“Will you really follow in the white moon’s footsteps?”

He didn’t mean to say it but now, he could see Dan sprawled across cold stone tiles as a girl yanked on the dream mirror protruding half way from the unconscious boy’s chest.

“Maybe the stones are defective, Ves.”

His communicator slipped from his grasp as Phil swiped his fingers across his tattoo and threw the sudden yet comforting weight at his enemy.

“Shit!” A breathless and high pitched squeal left her mouth as she pushed on her heel to dodge his attack before regarding him with an arched brow. “Who are you?”

“Get away from him!” Phil took a step forward. The girl regarded him with quirk of her lips.

He clenched his fists at his sides. He knew that his attacks were more effective offensively from a distance and that he was letting himself be riled but he didn’t care. Not when Dan was lying unprotected just feet away from the girl and why was his mirror only half exposed? Phil had never seen that during the battles that made up these last couple of months.

Surely, it wasn’t a good thing.

Phil lowered his gaze before charging. He couldn’t perceive the widening of the girl’s eyes, or the way her head whipped towards a hidden accomplice but he heard the startled yelp as he crashed into her. He raised a fist above his head without a thought when the unmistakable sound of shattering glass reached through the red haze that had overtaken his brain.

He didn’t have a moment to consider it before a sleek black whip wrapped across his wrist and he was flung away from the girl. His back crashed against the fountain, knocking the little breath he still had left out of him.

“Come on, PallaPalla. We need to go.”

Phil groaned but pressed against his elbow to get up.

“But—“

The girl was _pouting_ as she studied him, tossing a blue ball from one hand to the other carelessly.

“We can’t even extract a mirror. Now.”

Phil was on his feet now and had spotted another girl with red hair. He raised his hand.

“Okay…”

The energy spilled from his palm but they were gone.

“Fuck.” Phil moaned, scrubbing a palm across his face. He missed his chance.

_Can’t even take your chance, Philly. What are you doing? Can’t even protect the one you love._

_Dan._

He rushed to the boy, coming to curl his legs so he could rest on his hip so he could gather his friend in his arms. His hand smoothed through the unruly waves when he noticed it.

His dream mirror was fragmented- a corner had been snapped off and…glittering, sparkling shards were scattered across the floor...when the piece landed... it must have...

**_No._ **

“Dan.” Phil tried to keep his voice steady as he patted the other’s cheek forcefully. “Dan, come on. Wake up.”

_Why isn’t it going back? It needs to go back!_

Phil pressed against the mirror and shoved. It gave slightly under the force but refused to go any further even as Phil slammed his palm against it- slow and careful at first but then harder and faster and faster and harder because _it needed to go in, damn it. Dan needed his dream-whatever it was._

 _“_ Wake up! Wake UP! Please…WAKE UP!” He didn’t know when he started screaming but his throat burned and the words cracked in places they shouldn’t and _he just needed Dan to wake up._

“—thos! Phil! Phil—Stop!”

There were arms around him now, wrestling him away from Dan and Phil slammed a bloodied palm— _when did he start bleeding?—_ into their chest as he struggled to get back to his…

_Your what, Philip?_

“Please.” Phil sobbed as he kept slamming his hand into a familiar uniform, splattering crimson in uneven streaks across the fabric. “Peej—He—His mirror—I—“

PJ said nothing as Phil fought against him- wild, unruly, and desperate- as he stared at mirror in question. It was covered in bloody hand-prints and still wedged half-way into the slender boy’s chest. He couldn't help but think of a gunshot except he thinks that perhaps a gaping hole through the tissue would be less devastating than an unblemished body and a nearly whole mirror.

How could anyone survive without a dream to keep them going? 

PJ could see how Dan’s chest was not rising, how his cheeks were losing their warm pinkish tint, and...

“Let’s go talk to Venus.” PJ blurted out, turning on his heel so that Phil's back was facing towards Dan.

It was all he could do for his friend in this moment.

PJ sighed deeply and moved away Phil’s fringe from the crescent mark that decorated his brow as his friend finally sank into his embrace with tears steadily pouring down his face. “She’ll want to hear about this. Perhaps she’ll have an idea or Sailor Moon…”

He had heard the phrase from her a handful of times. It was said the first time he had faced down an enemy at the age of fourteen through a silhouetted outline on his laptop screen. It was murmured again at the age of seventeen when they met for the first time years after she gave him the pen and she gave him that big smile like the first time. It was spoken through a throat clogged with tears, in the darkness of his room at eighteen when they had taken turns gulping down the burning vodka, bodies throbbing with bruises and cuts as PJ and Chris snored on the floor. It was breathed the moment he decided to dye his hair to add an extra layer of protection to his identity.

It was said the moment he told her that he was meeting Dan and whispered when he admitted that he might _(definitely)_ be in love with the brunette boy.

_“For the love of Serenity, burn.”_

Her princess meant nothing to him but Phil wondered if his princess would use the ashes of her own heart to set his world aflame.

Or if this was his punishment for forsaking the kingdom she fought for...that she sacrificed for.

_(Was this his sacrifice to Aphrodite? To the queen with the iced heart that he could not remember from a dynasty years and years past?)_

He certainly wanted to see that blonde hair, red ribbon, and those calculating gaze singed beyond recognition. He wanted to see her bloodied, black and blue, still.

Phil wanted to sink to his knees and curl his fingers into her skirt as he begged for her to give Dan back. She was the Guardian of Love...and he loved Dan more than he loved anything so she could bring him back. Couldn't she? Aphrodite was a force to be reckoned with.

_She has limitations... She serves someone else._

_Serenity._

Phil reached out for Dan wordlessly and a thought came to him:

_How fitting is it for Pothos to desire someone so much and a goal that was so unattainable._

_After all…how could you circumvent death and how can you kill someone who was already murdering themselves in little ways each day for a Queen who cared nothing for her?_

How many people would the Moon Princess sear before there was peace?


End file.
